Where's the beep in Apple Mail?
Grazing the Web over the last few days, I came upon a MacFixit piece on trying to get around the Apple mail sound bug. If you're a Mail user, there's a good chance you have run into it. Incoming mail fails to sound a beep, so you finally get a look at mail and see dozens of emails have come in while the Mac remains mute. I complained about this more than a year ago, but still nothing from Apple.
There have been dozens of articles talking about this, and the Apple support boards reflect a lot of users that are unhappy about the issue. I think the bug was introduced more than five years ago on OS X, and it remains broken and ignored by Apple. On the Apple boards, the complaints go back many years and are as recent as last week. I've tried several of the suggested fixes, but they never work; I'm not interested in a work around, I want it to work as designed.
It's hard to believe that the same company that created a new cell phone that changed the world can't get a simple beep working. I have the issue on both my Macs, and everyone I know has similar issues. My POP mail accounts work fine, but MobileMe has the issue, and I'm told other IMAP accounts are similarly plagued. Mysteriously, it works fine for some folks. Come on, Apple -- think different about this and get mail sounds working.
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Grazing the Web over the last few days, I came upon a MacFixit piece on trying to get around the Apple mail sound bug. If you're a Mail...
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Same problem here.... Apple needs to fix that, and getting iCal To List on iPhone! COme on!
September 21 2010 at 12:48 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Replywonder if this is related to the iCal alarms that don't go off. I have sat next to 2 Macs and my iPhone and heard the alarm for an event go off on the iPhone, but not on the 2 Macs that the calendar is synced to. Not just the audible alarm, but the visual prompt fails to appear.
I've been using my G-4 MacMini for about 4 years, (yeah MacOSX 10.4.11) and I actually replaced the "beep" sound with, of all things, my aol, "You've got mail" announcement. It works great. There are so many beeps and pings and sounami sounds from my computer, a "You've got Mail" voice is so identifiable. I have forgotten how I did it, though... something about coping the aol voice mp3 to my sounds folder and linking it to that.....
September 20 2010 at 1:57 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyWeird. My Apple Mail works fine with MobileMe and I get the little beep sound when a new email arrives. I find it bizarre that my iPhone beeps a few seconds before Mail, but hey, no complaints.
September 20 2010 at 12:20 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyOne thing I've noticed is, since I configured my MobileMe account in Mail.app, the beep got VERY, very weak in volume... If I don't have my iPhone near me (wich indeed has a loud Mail beep), I don't even notice new messages coming in...
September 20 2010 at 10:06 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThis bug sometimes irritates. Mail seems to beep perfectly fine on the iPhone/iPod. Disabling the idle command works and setting the fetch time to a minute is good enough for me.
September 20 2010 at 8:46 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplyThis bug sometimes irritates. Mail seems to beep perfectly fine on the iPhone/iPod. Disabling the idle command works and setting the fetch time to a minute is good enough for me.
September 20 2010 at 8:44 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down ReplySimple rule to fix this: Click on Mail > Preferences > Rules > Add Rule
If *any* of the following conditions are met:
*To* *Contains* *Your email address*
Add more emails if you have more by click plus
Perform the following actions:
*Play Sound* *New Message sound*
*Bounce Icon in Dock*
Then click ok, make sure this rule is at the top of the list
Great to read it's not only me running into that issue. Worked fine with Leopard but since Snow Leopard there's no more beeping.
I just noticed that the beep sound is not played as a preview when I select "standard new mail sound" in Mail's preferences. However I get another preview when I select another sound.
What can I say? Never had the problem on any of the Macs in my limited domain - which have been several - all with OS X.
Just perhaps, the problem lies not with OS X; but, some piece of crap you and your friends all think is the bee's knees.
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TUAW (or The Unofficial Apple Weblog) is a website devoted to tips, reviews, news, analysis and opinion on everything Apple.
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